Our View: Mexican journalists are being slaughtered, and it hits way too close to home

Friends and family pay their final respects to slain journalist Javier Valdez, who apparently paid with his life for his award-winning reporting on the country's violent drug gangs.
Video provided by AFP
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Editorial: The most dangerous place for media in the western hemisphere lies just south of our state border.

The front page of a local newspaper is dedicated to murdered Mexican journalist Javier Valdez and wishes him farewell, in Culiacan, Sinaloa state, Mexico on May 17, 2017.(Photo: YURI CORTEZ, AFP/Getty Images)

Two journalists were gunned down in Mexico on Monday, becoming the sixth and seventh martyrs to freedom of the press in that country this year.

Americans who think this doesn’t concern them are mistaken. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson can tell you why.

As for Mexico, which has tolerated a stunning level of brutality against the press, these murders represent a threat to its national soul and its image on the international stage.

Two more reasons why Mexico is unsafe

On May 15, award-winning journalist Javier Valdez Cárdenas was shot near his office at Ríodoce, the newspaper he founded in the state of Sinaloa.

The same day, Jonathan Rodriguez, a reporter in the state of Jalisco, was shot while traveling in a car with his mother, Sonia Córdova Oceguera, deputy director of their family-run weekly El Costeño. She was gravely wounded.

Two separate incidents. Two more examples of why Mexico needs to do more to protect the safety of journalists.

The death of Valdez drew the most attention in this country because he was well known and because of his accomplishments, including the 2011 Committee to Protect Journalists International Press Freedom Award.

But many journalists die in Mexico.

Mexico’s own National Human Rights Commission reports that at least 125 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000.

Criminals kill, government does nothing

A free press is the hallmark of a modern, open democracy, yet Mexico’s criminal justice system rarely moves against the killers.

Journalists who are targeted take on some of the most powerful members of Mexico’s criminal underworld: drug traffickers, organized crime bosses and the corrupt government officials who protect them.

At a speech last year, Valdez said if you are a reporter revealing secrets criminals want to keep hidden, they “will decide what day they are going to kill you.”

He also said: “The government couldn't care less. They do nothing to protect you.”

Mexico risks its domestic stability and international ambitions unless it does more to protect journalists and prosecute those who try to silence them.

Why this has everything to do with U.S.

But we shouldn’t kid ourselves into thinking this has nothing to do with the United States.

In his May 18 meeting with high level Mexican officials, Tillerson made it clear that the problem Mexico faces with drug cartels and violence is a result of the America's "pervasive demand" for illegal drugs.

"We Americans must own this problem. It is ours," Tillerson said.

During the meeting, Mexico’s Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray talked about the need for cooperation between the two countries, and said “we don’t want to give the idea that this violence is not being addressed on our side.”

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has vowed to do more to protect journalists and a new prosecutor was recently appointed to investigate domestic terrorism against freedom of the press.

But the long trail of journalists’ blood creates a great deal of skepticism about the sincerity of this effort.

Mexico needs to act as though it values press freedoms and a fair, effective criminal justice system.

Never take press freedom for granted

This is about human rights. This is also about trade, commerce and winning the confidence of international travelers and business partners.

Mexican journalists have a story to tell in a country that is gripped by criminal syndicates and crippled by corruption.

It’s a story that will make criminals and the corrupt reach for a gag or a gun.

Those journalists who refuse to be intimidated are Mexico's modern heroes. They live and die just across our southern border.

We should remember them for their courage and their commitment to unwrapping the truth that evil-doers would rather keep covered.

We should also remember our own deep-rooted tradition of press freedom. It should not be taken for granted. Not by the public that is enlightened by good journalism. Not by reporters who need to keep their standards high.